BACKGROUND: As Congressmen and Senators head home for
the Passover/Easter recess, allies of the global greens are preparing
to challenge many of them on President Bush's decisions to not
regulate carbon dioxide emissions and withdraw from the Kyoto
protocol on climate change, signed by Al Gore in 1997. Here are
some cold facts on climate change which might be useful:

1. Leading global warming advocates are interested in economics
and power, not the environment. As Margot Wallstrom, the European
Union's commissioner for the environment told The Independent of London: "This [global warming] is not a simple environmental
issue where you can say it is an issue where the scientists are
not unanimous. This is about international economy, about trying
to create a level playing field for big businesses throughout
the world. You have to understand what is at stake and that is
why it is serious." In other words, Ms. Wallstrom is saying
it is necessary to hobble the U.S. economy to help the failing,
over-regulated European economies.

2. The Kyoto Protocol was set up to to place a heavy burden on
the U.S. and virtually none on Europe. By setting a target of
7% below the 1990 level for CO2 emissions, the UN put the U.S.
at a severe economic disadvantage. Using 1990 as a base year,
Great Britain reaps enormous reduction credits because it switched
from heavy use of high-sulfur coal to burning clean North Sea
natural gas after that date. Germany gets similar credits for
taking over the heavily polluting East German factories and closing
them after that date. The European Union, which has demanded to
be treated as a single entity, rather than separate countries,
benefits from these actions and, therefore, will need to do very
little to meet the treaty standards.

3. Europe and Japan have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. While
they condemn the U.S. for failing to accept Kyoto, not a single
European Union country has ratified it. In fact, of the approximately
100 countries which signed the treaty, only one, Romania, has
ratified it.

4. Global warming predicted by the many UN models has not occurred
and shows no sign of occurring. Over the last few years, UN climate
models have been adjusted to show less warming as the warming
they predicted failed to occur. The predicted temperature increases
were only ratcheted up after climate talks in The Hague and Bonn
collapsed. The facts are these: A. NASA weather balloons and satellites
have shown no warming in the lower troposphere, that part of the
atmosphere which is supposed to warm first under any greenhouse
gas scenario. B. Data show surface temperatures increased 0.3
degrees Celsius between 1900 and 1940, declined 0.1 degree from
1940 to 1975 and increased 0.3 degrees from 1975 to 2000 for a
total increase of about 0.6 degrees. C. This increase is about
one-fifth of the normal temperature swings which have occurred
over the last 1,000 years - surprising since we are still coming
out of a mini-ice age which lasted from about the 14th to the
19th century. Easy as ABC.

5. Kyoto would cost American jobs. The only way for America to
have complied with the Kyoto treaty would have been to severely
restrict the burning of fossil fuels either with massive new energy
taxes or by imposing severe rationing. Our Department of Energy,
under the Clinton administration, produced a detailed report on
the economic hardships and loss of jobs such schemes would create.

6. The notion of scientific agreement on man-caused climate warming
is a myth. The fact is thousands of scientists, even those who
worked on the UN study, have profound disagreements with the report
and serious doubts about abnormal climate change and man's ability
to affect it. Over 15,000 scientists, physicists, meteorologists
and climatologists signed a petition strongly denouncing the Kyoto
Protocol. As Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, who worked on the
UN study said, "The whole notion of scientific consensus
has been contrived to disguise the genuine disagreement among
scientists on a number of issues. The aura of certainty with which
IPCC's conclusions are being reported is clearly more a matter
of politics than science." A press release about Lindzen's
remarks can be found at http://www.cei.org/prreader.asp?ID=1379.

7. The notion that President Bush killed the Kyoto Protocol is
absurd. It was already dead. Not only has the treaty been ratified
by only one nation, because of its obvious flaws, it would never
have been ratified by the U.S. Senate. In fact, the Senate passed
a resolution 95-0 saying it would not ratify a treaty with the
provisions contained within Kyoto. That is why the Clinton administration
never sent the treaty to the Senate. Lacking Senate ratification,
there never was U.S. agreement on the treaty, since the President
and Vice-President cannot bind the U.S. to international treaties
without the consent of the U.S. Senate.

8. There is no statutory authority for regulating carbon dioxide
in the U.S. The Clean Air Act does not authorize the regulation
of CO2, which is not a pollutant. If such regulation was possible
the Clinton/Gore Administration would have done it. So, in essence,
when President Bush said he would not regulate carbon dioxide,
he was saying he would not do what he did not have the power to
do.

9. Russia is pushing for the Kyoto Protocol because it believes
it will make billions of dollars from the U.S. While Russia is
one of the world's heaviest polluters, their emissions fell by
some 30 percent over the last 10 years due to the collapse of
their economy... it's that 1990 base year, again. This means Russia
would have emissions "credits" they could sell to U.S.
businesses which would be unable to meet Kyoto standards.

The amazing thing about U.S. reaction to the Kyoto Protocol is
not that President Bush withdrew us from it but that Al Gore,
as Vice President, signed it in the first place and any Congressmen
and Senators support it.